On January 21, a forum was held at the University of San Diego by several groups that are interested in elections. The purpose of the forum was to consider a top-four system using ranked choice voting in the second round. The sponsoring groups were the League of Women Voters of San Diego, the Independent Voters Project, Fairvote, and RepresentUS.
It is very noteworthy that the Independent Voters Project co-sponsored this meeting. The Independent Voters Project has been a major proponent of California’s top-two system. Here is an article about the meeting published on Independent Voters News.
In my opinion, a top-four system would be far better than top-two, but a top-four system is still basically irrational. In both a top-two system and a top-four system, there are no party nominees. If society wants to abolish party nominees, then a rational system would only have one round of voting, combined with ranked choice voting. The whole purpose of ranked choice voting is to make single round elections feasible. That saves money for election administration, cuts down on the cost of campaigning, and eases the burden on voters of having to make multiple trips to the voting booth.
Also a top-four system would still shut out minor party candidates from the general election, in races for Governor and U.S. Senator, especially when no incumbent is running. When no incumbent is running for either of those two offices, there are invariably four or more well-funded, well-publicized major party members running. Minor parties wouldn’t place in the top four, and that would cut down on the range of ideas presented in the general election season.
